May 5, 2017 -- Significantly fewer North Shore students opted out of the grades 3-7 Common Core Math exams than did do last year, according to figures released by the school district.

Of the 1070 students school who were scheduled to sit for the exam, 339, or 32%, boycotted the three days of testing that began on Tuesday - exactly 100 fewer than last year.

Across Long Island 53.6% of students refused the exam.​The Middle School grades had the highest number of opt outs, with just under 44% of 6th graders refusing the exam, and 38% of 7th graders doing so. Overall, a slightly lower percentage of students (32%), refused the Math exam as did 3rd through 7th graders the English Language Arts exam (37%) that was administered last month.

​The 8th grade, which had the highest opt out rate in the district for the ELA exam (59%) and greatly skewed the numbers upward, was not scheduled to take the Common Core Math assessment, since those students will, instead, sit for the Algebra Regents exam in June.